Tag Archives: Battlefront

That’s not hyperbole. Some people say shit like, “I hate this company! I’m never buying another one of their products again!” even though you know deep-down that they are. Like every idiot who says “I’m never eating at McDonald’s again!” Bullshit! You already debase yourself by eating there. You’re going again. Don’t lie to us. However, for me, this isn’t just some design decision. This is a personal issue that I refuse to be a part of.

I got into gaming because of how lonely I was, growing up. I didn’t have many friends, and escaping to fiction was better than real life of being all by myself all the time. Some of my favorite stories, growing up, were told in video games. I got lost in the fantasy world of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I felt myself captivated by tragic and beautiful narrative in Final Fantasy X. My youth was all about my best friends and I escaping into fiction. Later on in my life it was me and my cat. Her name is Lizzy. She is extremely old and it’s pretty clear her health is declining. The parents keep talking about her losing her mind, and while I shrug it off, part of me does wonder. When I had my big chair, my kitty would sit on the arm. I’d play games and watch movies and she was always with me. A loyal friend, whose idea of perishing fills me with genuine pain.

In college, I played the Mass Effect trilogy so many times that I know most of my favorite character’s dialogue by heart! I got through some unbelievably painful personal moments with those games. Does this make me sound pathetic? It wasn’t just games. My favorite movies, books, TV shows, long walks where I get to look at beautiful things, it all helped me get through horribly difficult times in my life. But gaming is a big one.

So when I see articles talking about how single-player gaming is going the way of the dodo, it genuinely fills me with a pit inside that I cannot describe. Here’s the thing – I will NEVER be into multiplayer games. Moreover, I’ll never be into MMOs. Why? Because I game for stories. Guess what kind of story Destiny had – a shit one. How about Destiny 2? That story was shit too. What about The Division? Shit. Or how about all the Call of Duty games? The last time I enjoyed a narrative from them was Modern Warfare 2. Hell, even the Assassin’s Creed games are trying to make themselves multiplayer. It kills me inside.

Now, plenty of people have pointed out all the fantastic single-player only games that have come out lately. This year has had some real standout examples of the genre. My favorite game thus far has been Persona 5. To see a AAA JRPG is something I NEVER believed I’d see in my lifetime. It’s incredible that such a thing now exists, and it was a massive hit. All the dates it was pushed back clearly was the right call, because it got everything right. There was also Horizon: Zero Dawn. While it has its flaws, it is a unique concept that really put forth the effort to make a different experience. We also got a truly fantastic remake of Doom, where the biggest lesson the developers got to take away is that people loved it beyond words for the singe player, while hating its multiplayer components. So there may be hope.

But it does seem like more and more AAA developers wants to move away from that kind of game. We also have microtransactions seeping their way into single-player games. This disheartens me for a lot of reasons. For starters, just think of all the great visions that will be stifled by companies who only want to cater to markets where they can make as much money as they can, all the time. What kind of gaming market is that setting up? That’s simple – one that isn’s sustainable. After all, people move on from games. How many of the servers for the old CoD games still run? Are there any servers for EA’s shit-tastic remake of Sim City? Oh, right, they patched single player in because everyone hated their half-assed excuse for multiplayer.

Part of me thinks that all of this talk is indicative of a medium that can’t sustain itself anymore. The cost of game development has just gotten so huge that unless they make games that are money-factories, they lose money on making games. Because after all, you gotta make the most cutting-edge properties all the time, right? Middle-tier games that may not have the best visuals or maybe have some funky controls or what-have-you, where devs can find ways to experiment and try new things? Nope! Can’t have that. That might involved having the guts to sink money into something and not get it all back. Because Hollywood refuses to take risks, so why should we?

I will never want to play games for multiplayer. It doesn’t matter what bullshit the desiccated husks at Bioware put out, I still don’t want it. EA decided to shit-can Visceral Games and turn their latest Star Wars project into a new Destiny game. Because why try to make an interesting game when you can make a cash cow that the Star Wars fanboys will cum in their pants for because of the license. I swear, it’s the only reason EA’s new Battlefront game made any money at all. Same with why the second will make money. Because if they can shove the name in your face enough, it’s gotta be good…right..?

So when I say that if single-player in games dies, I’m done, I mean it. I’ll just collect all the games I loved and will just die off in nostalgia, because what the fuck would I want to play the latest MMO sandbox game? That’s not why I game. It will NEVER be why I game. Desperately hoping I’m not alone in this thought.

Until next time, a quote,

“Words are how we think; stories are how we link.” – Christina Baldwin

EA’s Battlefront sucked. I am pretty sure that this game will suck too. I have no intention of playing it. But here’s the thing I want to talk about – why I think this game could have had potential. Because it really could have. For a little while there I am actually invested in what’s happening. I don’t get how a trailer can go from engaging to bullshit in seconds. Maybe it’s because Disney decided to fuck the Expanded Universe. I don’t know. Whatever the case, this game goes from looking really cool to looking really dumb in seconds, and that’s amazing. Let’s take a look at this trailer.

You know what I miss – the Rogue Squadron games. Those were awesome. I keep hoping that EA will do something with that license, but they would probably fuck that up anyway. I bring this up for a reason. There was this incredible animated short that was done in the style of Gundam where you have Imperial fighters duking it out with the Rebels and kicking their ass. I have always really wanted to know what the Empire’s story is. I mean, all we ever see of them is them being evil. In the old Tie Fighter games, you get to play as an Imperial pilot. It would have been kinda cool to see things from their point of view. I mean, when you think about it, the Rebels are some hardcore terrorists. How many innocent people got killed when they blew up the original Death Star? They condemned the Ewoks to obliteration when they blew up the second one. The Rebels are all about peace and justice, but you really do have to wonder how many innocent people’s deaths are on their hands.

So this game has you in the role of an elite stormtrooper. Cool! We get to see the war from the Empire’s side! And especially after the fall of the Emperor. Awesome! So is it like a civil war? Is the Empire collapsing and you get to see from the side of a lost soldier who can’t leave her duty behind? That’s kinda neat. We even get to see the Rebels getting their shit messed up. Really did remind me of that animated short. Wanna watch that again. You all should too.

But then the trailer decides to fuck all that cool build-up and go into the stupid. Every time I see Emo Vader’s stupid lightsaber design I laugh. The most impractical weapon ever, and they still want us to think that it’s cool. They are trying WAY too hard. We also get to reenact the battle with Darth Maul? Like, from Episode I? The second-worst film in the entire franchise? (I argue that Episode II is the worst. The cringe level was so much worse than Episode I) Okay? Hell, can we PLEASE get some of the cool characters from Cartoon Network’s show? I’d love to get to play as Cad Bane, who is one of my favorite anti-heroes. Or maybe a cool General Grievous like in Clone Wars. Maybe some Ventress action? Oh, right, that would be cool. And if it’s cool, it’s not in this game. Instead, we have Emo Vader and Boring Girl who is played by an actress who can’t act (not even going to see Episode VIII) doing stuff.

If the story of this game is what I think, and you get to play as the Empire on the losing side of the war with the Rebellion, this game could have at least some potential. But this is EA and DICE. How much hope do you really have that this game won’t suck?

The new Street Fighter game is out. The fact that I am not a fighting game person aside, I have heard all kinds of stuff from the gamers about it. The reviews have all been glowing. Of course. The day that a major gaming news outlet shits on a game for its problem is the day that my cat takes up playing the fiddle. Gaming outlets are paid for good reviews. Not in the typical way that people think. There was a rather fantastic video about how gaming news works that really took a shit on how crooked it all is.

So yeah, the games media loves this game. The gamers took a dump on it. Whether it was the SJW community spewing their usual bullshit about how “sexualized” female characters are (even though I doubt that any of them actually played this game), or the people who had legitimate complaints, like the fact that the online match-making was broken, or that whole parts of the game were missing. But one thing that I saw was this – there is no single player in this game. There is no Arcade mode or single-player match-making of any kind. This just baffles me. Like Capcom just wants to give a giant finger to the people who aren’t just playing for the e-sports aspect.

I am seeing this quite a lot, lately. The new “Battlefront” had no single player either. It seems like single-player games are being featured less and less. With the new Division coming out, they are saying that there is a legit single player, but everyone who has played the beta has said that even the single player is multi-player. So that’s out too. What’s more, games that only have single player are given a ton of shit too. Like if there’s not a multiplayer element, that’s a bad thing.

Let me make something clear – if a game is multi-player only, that can be fine. But here’s the deal – not if it’s a game that has already had a very integral single player mode. Like EA’s transgression against the name Battlefront. That series once had a very good single player mode. It was made in the day when online gaming was a very different thing. So gamers like myself were just in for the single player. At least if we were on consoles, which I have always been. It’s the land I grew up in. Same deal with Street Fighter V. This series has ALWAYS had an Arcade mode. It’s always had a mode for the people who don’t play games just to fight against other people. Hell, for all its faults, Call of Duty has made sure to have a single player campaign. And not all of them were very bad. Some of them were pretty damn good. Like the one to Modern Warfare 2. The first two acts of that game were fucking amazing! Getting to experience modern warfare on American soil was one of the best moments in gaming I’ve ever had. No joke, that was phenomenal.

This new trend of moving away from single-player games is bothering, to me. Maybe I’m just some old fart and not in touch with the youth of today, but I game for story. And I don’t think its too much to ask for a franchise that has always had a single player to not just turn their back on it in a new entry. There are the games like Planetside 2, which has no single player. And that’s fine. It’s an IP that never did. It’s all about the online space. I got that. Same with the Tribes games. But don’t just take a giant shit on gamers who have made you the multi-billion dollar industry.

What do you all think? Let me know in the Comments.

Until next time, a quote,

“Age is just a number. It’s totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine.” – Joan Collins